“You’re being exceptionally lively today aren’t you?”
It’s coming.

“So it finally happened?”
You know how they are, hard-headed as always, we too had been young once.
The changeling chuckled.

“Me? oh no, as somepony had told me once, I was born with a top-hat and a cane, heh!”
The chuckle had now become a weak cough; he didn’t have it in him to even muster a proper cough.
Still hanging on, as always.

“I’m afraid my body isn’t what it used to be, but I’m not leaving until it’s over”
Don’t worry my dear old friend, it’s almost over, soon enough we’ll be on our way, all of us.
The cogs of fate were coming to a close as the ticking soothed the changeling to sleep.

Author's Notes:

This chapter is a very short one, the reason for that is that I couldn't think of a way of incorporating it into the future chapters through a gentle and smooth transition whilst keeping it relevant to the topic of the given chapter so I decided to dedicate a whole chapter for it.
Also, I didn't forcefully expand this chapter to make it longer because well... I don't feel this chapter needs anything more right now, after all, quality over quantity.
The next chapter is out on Monday and some shit is going to go down because it's time to sew the pieces together.